microscope

A microscope is an instrument that makes an enlarged image of a small object, thus revealing details too small to be seen by the unaided eye. The most familiar kind of microscope is the optical microscope, which uses visible light focused through lenses.

The word “microscope” comes from the Latin “microscopium,” which is derived from the Greek words “mikros,” meaning “small,” and “skopein,” meaning “to look at.”

It is not definitively known who invented the microscope. However, the earliest microscopes seem to have been made by Dutch opticians Hans Janssen and his son Zacharias Janssen and by Dutch instrument maker Hans Lippershey (who also invented the telescope) about 1590.

Microscope slides are small rectangles of transparent glass or plastic, on which a specimen can rest so it can be examined under a microscope.